Nigeria Begins Target For Additional One Million Barrels Per Day Oil Production
By Abimbola Abdullah
The Federal Government has unveiled a new target to increase oil production by another one million barrels of oil per day.
Nigeria currently produces around 1.6 million bopd, according to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), hence the realization of “Project One Million Barrels of Oil Per Day” is expected to take the nation’s production to 2.6 million barrels per day.
Speaking at the launching of the Project 1MMBOPD Initiative, which coincides with the three years anniversary of the organisation, the Chief Executive Officer, NUPRC, Gbenga Komolafe, said: “The Project 1MMBOPD is an industry collaborative initiative to co-create solutions and evolve alternative funding mechanisms to unlock incremental oil production in the short-to-medium term with expanded opportunities for all industry stakeholder groups. We see value for all –Producers, Service Providers, Rig Owners, Financiers, Crude Oil off-takers, amongst others.”
He stressed that the Project 1 Million Barrel initiative is pivotal to production ramp-up, energy security, and economic resilience, all in the overall national interest.
On the nation’s oil production status, he said “Our efforts are yielding satisfactory results as evidenced by the level of upstream activities within the past year. The industry has witnessed a notable increase in rig activities, well intervention, and field developments, signaling a positive trend to boost production.
“This uptick reflects both the impact of regulatory reforms driven by the Commission and a renewed focus on maximizing the potential of our oil and gas assets.
“We are glad to report that with the concerted efforts of relevant stakeholders, production has grown from 1.2 million to 1.6 million bopd today,” Komolafe stated.
He said the government is making progress on the divestments, saying, out of the total of five divestment applications for consent received by the Commission, a total of four (representing 80%) passed regulatory test and secured ministerial consent.
These are: Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited (MPNU) to Seplat Energy Offshore Limited; Equinor Nigeria Energy Company Limited to Project Odinmin Investments Limited
Others are: Nigerian Agip Oil Company Limited to Oando Petroleum and Natural Gas Company Limited; and TotalEnergies EP Nigeria Limited to Telema Energies Nigeria Limited.
However, he stated that the divestment of Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited’s assets to Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited could not scale regulatory test.
He also noted that further to the PIA and the 2020 Bid Round, a total of 50 marginal fields have been converted to Petroleum Prospecting Licenses (PPLs), together with a minimum work programme that allows for early development and maturation of the assets,
“The streamlined work program is projected to bring the fields into production within three years and some have already made significant progress on field studies, well interventions, and project development.
“It is anticipated that about 60,000 bopd and 90MMscfd of incremental oil and gas production will be realized from these assets in the near term,” he stated.
